Awards
Best Documentary 2002, Hollywood Film Festival
Best Documentary 2003, The Anchorage International Film FestivalFrom the Press
| “Brilliant…” |
| -Christine Brinck, Süddeutsche Zeitung |
| “Fascinating…” |
| -Desson Thomson, Washington Post |
| “Inescapably touching” |
| -Stephen Holden, NY Times |
| “Absorbing, unflinching look at dissent and repression.” |
| -Bilge Ebiri, NY Magazine |
| “Ignites screen…especially pertinent today” |
| -V.A. Musetto, NY Post |
| “Focused and fascinating…picture really grips.” |
| -Eddie Cockrell, Variety |
| “Scorching, engrossing…a mesmerizing film…” |
| -Jolie Williamson, Tribune-Review, Pittsburgh |
| “Riveting! The final moments are as exhilarating as any you’ll see in a theater this year”. |
| -Jack Mathews, Daily News |
| “A compelling…haunting journey” |
| -Lisa Sweetingham, Time Out NY |
| “Remarkable…gripping…exhilerating emotional ride” |
| -Richard Huntington, The Buffalo News |
| “A stirring history of repression and resistance…” |
| -Reader, Chicago |
| “The Burning Wall has an air of mystery as it ponders the fundamental question of the 20th century…” |
| -Noel Murray, The Onion, Chicago |
| “Screen Gems…’Burning Wall’…” |
| -John Petralis, Chicago Tribune |
| “Impressive, insightful…superbly documented…Hava Kohav Beller was awarded the ‘Commander’s Cross of the Order of Merit’ by President Richard von Weizsäcker in 1993. You might say she should receive it again for ‘The Burning Wall.’” |
| -Heike Hupertz, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung |
| “Sensitive… intelligent…” |
| -Sebastian Schmideler, Leipziger Volkszeitung |
| ” Do you worry the USA Patriot Act may be used for more than fighting terrorism? This gripping, new documentary about the history of Communist East Germany’s Stasi might provide a cautionary tale. The tight narrative digs into territory never before explored on film, using extensive research to focus on the secret police that (between 1949 and 1989) kept tabs on the populace with a force of 100,000 agents. Beller takes us into a world of heroism and brutality, finding those who were part of the system and those who resisted.” |
| -Pittsburgh Filmmakers’ Three Rivers Film Festival |
| “A spectacular movie by Hava Beller about the Berlin Wall, ‘The Burning Wall,’ won the best documentary award at the Anchorage International Film Festival’s Oosikars ceremony Dec. 14.” |
| -Susan Morgan, Anchorage Daily News |